IMF

There has been debate this year, as always, about whether a ‘Santa Claus rally’ would happen.  In fact, the seasonal anomaly in which abnormally positive returns take place in the market during the month of December has happened 80 percent of the time over the past 20 years. This year, some...

The euro was strong on Wednesday morning and traded near a seven week high after German factory orders beat analysts' expectations and rebounded in June. The common currency had gained 0.4 percent by 6:11 GMT on Wednesday as hopes rose that the eurozone's two year economic slow down was nearing...

The euro stood to end the week on a high note on Friday morning as it climbed nearer to $1.33. The common currency saw a boost after better than expected PMI data gave investors hope for the region's recovery. The dollar slid against the euro after lackluster economic data put the brakes on the US...

There are millions of tweets written every day. Benzinga sifts through the maelstrom of information to find the ten best tweets of the day that are either informative, insightful, or just down right comical. 1. Carl Icahn Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) took to Twitter to tweet his displeasure...

The euro began the week below $1.30 on as the bloc headed for another week of tough decisions. The common currency was trading at $1.2718 as the region's finance ministers prepared for a summit at which the funding of several of the eurozone's weaker members is expected to take precedent. The Wall...

The IMF made a rather negative assessment of the Spanish economy overnight, noting its improvement from the doldrums of last summer but reiterating that the country has a long way to go. The IMF said that unemployment remains unacceptably high which calls for urgent action to generate growth and...

Futures Lower Following Tuesday Gains U.S. equity futures gave back some of Tuesday's gains in pre-market trade Wednesday. A driver of the sell-off could have been the IMF cutting its China growth forecast to 7.75 percent from 8 percent previously just one day after China's Premier said the...

Late Sunday, Cyprus reached a deal with the Troika of creditors made up of the EU, the ECB and the IMF. In the deal, small deposits (mainly those of smaller, domestic savers) would be protected and the nation's banking sector would be drastically reformed. The draft proposal calls for Cyprus to...

Futures Slip on Spanish Fears U.S. equity futures slipped in early Friday trade as fears of the finances of Spanish banks resurfaced. The Spanish government has placed a freeze on evictions of homes due to increasing suicide rates as people lose their homes, which will be costly to the banks in...

Futures plummet as Greece gets more time on bailout, German Economic Sentiment Drops. U.S. equity futures dropped precipitously in early Tuesday trading following a day of think trading as only stock markets were open in observance of Veterans Day Monday. Overnight, European finance ministers and...

U.S. equity futures fell in early Wednesday trading as the International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning on Europe's troubled banking sector. In a revised estimate, the group's economists believe that European banks need to sell approximately $4.5 trillion of assets, 18 percent higher than...

U.S. equity futures fell in early Tuesday trading as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed global growth forecasts in its quarterly World Economic Outlook. The IMF slashed its estimate for 2012 global growth to 3.3 percent global GDP growth from 3.5 percent in its previous estimate. Also,...

U.S. equity futures fell in early Monday trading as the World Bank slashed growth forecasts for Asian nations including China. The World Bank cut its estimates for Chinese growth in 2012 to 7.7 percent annualized GDP growth from 8.2 percent previously and cut its 2013 GDP growth estimate to 8.1...

Overnight, Greece's three main coalition leaders agreed on measures to reduce spending by approximately $12 billion over the next two years. These cuts amount to nearly all of the $13.8 billion in cuts which the Troika demanded in order to release the next tranche of bailout money to Greece....